Page 95 - Empires of Medieval West Africa

E m p i r E s o f m E d i E v a l w E s t a f r i c a

In TheIr Own wOrds

Grand King Receives Dusty Visitors

arab traveler ibn Battuta has provided an people, then he mounts the platform. As
eyewitness description of the 14th century he sits down the drums are beaten and
mali Empire. in 1325, ibn Battuta left home the trumpets are sounded. . . .
in tangier, morocco, and set out for the The blacks are the humblest of people
pilgrimage to mecca. He traveled the muslim in front of their mansa and are very
world for 24 years, and in 1352–1353 he submissive towards him. They greet him
by saying, “Mansa Sulayman ké.” When
crossed the sahara and visited the court of he calls to one of them at his sessions
mansa sulayman. in the pavilion, the person takes off his
regular clothes and puts on ragged
On some days the mansa sits on a
platform under a tree. It is upholstered ones and removes his turban and puts
with silk. Cushions are placed upon it on a dirty old hat, and goes in pulling
up his trousers to expose his legs [only
and a sunshade is erected. This is like a uncircumcised boys wore shorts], and
dome of silk topped by a golden bird the goes forward with great humility. He then
size of a falcon. The mansa comes out of beats on the ground with his elbows. If
a door in the corner of the palace with one of them speaks to the mansa and the
his bow in his hand and his quiver [of mansa answers him, he uncovers his back
arrows] over his shoulder. On his head he and sprinkles dust on his head and back
wears a bonnet of gold fastened with a as if he were washing himself with water.
golden strap. . . . The singers come out in
front of him with gold and silver stringed (source: levtzion, Nehemia, and J. f. p. Hopkins,
instruments in their hands and they are editors. Corpus of Early Arabic Sources
followed by about 300 armed slaves. The for West African History. cambridge, U.K.:
mansa walks slowly, pauses to look at the cambridge University press, 1981.)

who participated in the founding of the empire early in the 13th cen-
tury. Members of some of these families have the status of aristocrat,
or horonw.
Traditionally, these aristocrats were landowners and community
leaders. They were expected to conduct themselves with dignity and
honor, and to speak only when they had something serious to say. The
senior male members of families who traced their ancestors to the
village’s founder were eligible to be chiefs. Some families claimed to be
descended from distinguished ancestors described in the Sunjata Epic,
the story of Mali’s founding—including Sunjata himself.
Enterprising merchants, whose business was greatly aided by their
ability to speak many languages, were constantly on the move between

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